The Knight
The Knight - meaning Summary
Death Waits Beneath Armor
The poem contrasts an outwardly active, celebratory life with a hidden, patient death. A knight rides into the world of feasts, love, and banners while, beneath his armor, Death is trapped in chainmail and longs for release. The image presents mortality as both ever-present and deferred, awaiting the wound that will free it to "dance and sing"—a paradoxical yearning that underlines the intimacy and inevitability of death alongside living.
Read Complete AnalysesThe Knight rides forth in coat of mail Into the roar of the world. And here is Life: the vines in the vale And friend and foe, and the feast in the hall, And May and the maid, and the glen and the grail; God's flags afloat on every wall In a thousand streets unfurled. Beneath the armour of the Knight Behind the chain's black links Death crouches and thinks and thinks: "When will the sword's blade sharp and bright Forth from the scabbard spring And cut the network of the cloak Enmeshing me ring on ring— When will the foe's delivering stroke Set me free To dance And sing?"
Translated by Jessie Lamont
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